Debate: where to land the cane, the hand or the seat?

 

The debate about where to land the cane (the hands or the backside) rumbled on for as long as it continued to be used in schools.

More than a hundred years ago headmasters and headmistresses met in London to share views on the topic.

It was impossible to cane a boy on his hand without bruising him, said one.

Others contended that if they caned on that part which nature intended for the purpose, they left a weal, and in the eyes of a magistrate a mark was a dreadful thing.

Here are two newspaper reports from the time.

As published in the Evening Express (Liverpool, England), 19 March 1921.

As published in the Tiverton Gazette (Devon, England), 22 February 1921.

Picture credit: The Rover

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